Competition Law and Policy and the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Invitation only workshop/roundtable organised by Sciences Po with UCL's Centre for Law, Economics and Society.

Co-organised by Prof. Dina Waked and Prof. Ioannis Lianos.

This roundtable is organized in the context of a partnership between Sciences Po (as part of the Project Liberty Institute research project on TRACK AI [Transparency, Regulation, Antitrust, Contracts, Knowledge Exploring Governance Gaps in AI Firms]), the Centre for Law, Economics and Society at UCL, and the Inclusive Competition Forum (ICF), aiming to explore adequate regulatory responses to the competition challenges raised by AI and the increasing collaborations between major technology companies and AI firms.

As the fourth industrial revolution unveils, fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, we are witnessing unparalleled changes in our economic, social and political systems propelled by generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), gene-editing and synthetic biology, robotic automation, and quantum computing. These developments raise important questions as to how competition authorities may engage with the threats of competition harm of novel technologies and reconcile this mission with the new emphasis put on industrial policy, growth and innovation.

Looking to AI, initially, competition authorities, along with academia, concentrated on algorithmic coordination. However, as AI adoption has expanded across the economy, attention has shifted to exploitation concerns affecting consumers and trade partners due to corporate extraction strategies and the imposition of unfair terms to business or end-users of these novel technologies. Most recently, focus has turned to three interrelated concerns: the high economic concentration within various segments of the AI stack, the development of partnerships between Big Tech and AI companies, the widespread deployment of algorithms throughout the economy, and the inherent characteristics of these technologies as potential sources of exploitation and value capture. As control over these artificial worlds becomes concentrated in a handful of dominant technology corporations, governments are now raising previously neglected questions about industrial policy and digital sovereignty.

This gathering will unite enforcement officials and specialists from developed and developing nations to address how competition regulators can tackle emerging technological challenges, from artificial intelligence to quantum computing and synthetic biology. The event will also incorporate civil society perspectives on balancing innovation and growth with social equity and inclusiveness. By fostering dialogue between competition authorities, civil society organizations, and academic researchers, this initiative aims to establish an annual tradition for Sciences Po, CLES and ICF, aligned with the OECD December meetings.

Participants:

• Dina Waked, Sciences Po Paris
• Teodora Groza, Sciences Po Paris
• Beatriz Botero Arcila, Sciences Po Paris
• Cristina Caffarra, UCL & CEPR
• Bruno Carballa Smichowski, EU JRC
• Sarah Cardell, UK Competition & Markets Authority (CMA)
• Gina Cass-Gottlieb, Chair, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
• Thomas Cheng, Hong Kong University
• Bogdan Chiritoiu, President, Romanian Competition Council
• Nuno Cunha Rodrigues, President, Portuguese Competition Authority
• Todd Davies, UCL Faculty of Laws
• Mark Dempsey, Article19
• Natalie Harsdorf, Director General, Federal Austrian Competition Authority
• Elisabetta Iossa, Member of the Board, Italian Competition Authority
• Irene Keizer, SOMO
• Stavros Makris, UCL Faculty of Laws
• Andrea Marvan, President, COFECE
• Frederic Marty, TSE and University Cote d’Azur
• Kamil Nejezchleb, Director General, Czech Competition Authority
• Maria Teresa Da Piedade Moreira, Head of Competition and Consumer Protection, UNCTAD
• Chara Nikolopoulou, Vice-president, Hellenic Competition Commission
• Cecilia Rikap, UCL
• Benoit Rottembourg, Regalia, INRIA
• Martijn Snoep, President, Dutch ACM
• Doris Tshepe, Competition Commissioner, South Africa
• Ioannis Lianos, UCL & CAT

Schedule:

• 17:30 Registration
• 17:40 Event begins
• 19:50 Reception